>> good morning i'm laurence cornfield chief building inspector and like to welcome you to our brown bag lunch we do the third thursday of every month at the department of building inspection. we invite you to participate so call for information and join us. our next talk is on decks and balcones. today we will talk about commercial restaurants in san francisco. we have a lot of people in the audience who are restaurant exe experts and architects and industry people. i should talk about commercial restaurants and how to get permit issues resolved and problems resolved during lunchtime. is probably not a thing that's going to attract a lot of people in the commercial restaurant

business because they work at lunch and they are not here. hopefully we can broadcast this and may be if there is an interest we will do it at a future date. another thing, perhaps we should do this at a restaurant because we want to support restaurant necessary san francisco. we did last year have lunch at town hall restaurant we will do that again later this year. we have a lot of topics to cover today, before we start i want to tell you my opinions e of course this is my own opinion not the opinions of the building department, my opinions on restaurant and the values they bring to the city. whether a 2 star, 3 or no star restaurant. restaurants serve san francisco in an integral way. this is a tourist city. a destination city. a lot of people live here

because of the unique interest that san francisco provides and the entertainment industry and including restaurants provide a lot of that that make living here a joy for so many of us. and people say, what a wonderfully successful restaurant they must be making a lot of money. there is this image that somebody is benefitting at the other end of this commercial restaurant thing. i have to tell you knowing many in the commercial restaurant industry it's a very difficult to make a living if you are the owner or manager. more than think of from 24r point of voy restaurants provide a tremendous benefit to the city. there are a lot of people that have jobs in restaurants. suppliers and contractors have impacts throughout the city. we have to understand that restaurants provide social well being for the city. an economic base, this is an

important thing and the department of building and inspection i do our very best to resolve restaurant issues. so that we can move along restaurants. one of the big things that hangs up commercial restaurants is the length of time it takes from the concept to the opening your doors and being able to bring customers in. one of my goals here is to try in help you understand how you can resolve some issues and may be how you can design your process to do restaurant remodels in such a way that you don't step into a pothole that slows you down in this thing. i know there are people here with other points of view and mr. kevin westly from the golden gate restaurant association is here. >> we started this project a year ago with spur and the mayor's office getting expediters and restaurant tours and getting myself and city

employees involved and trying to define the problem and we have want todd create disappointments that would be general guide lines but we answered every detail problem is not public. it's meant to be a generic guideline to follow knowing the circumstances will constantly be changing. this is something we vetted over a week ago and these are edits. i don't know if this has the final edits. >> probably. is will be a fluid document so if you were to use itto a project and on page 2 you think this would be helpful, we would love the feedback. we found out people did not understand the process for a change in use permit as one example that oftentimes they dependent investigate properly with a contractor in the space

to know the electric standpoint would be. we tried to give them things they can look at before they sign their lease and move forward. my interest today is to continue that education. my own background i have opened 15 restaurants in san francisco for 30 years. i have been through the process. each is unique to the space. whether it's on city or port or private property, there are different rules for each one. the confusion we found in the group between accessibility standards for title 24 and the ada, i don't think the entry level restaurants understand that as well. >> the city through the small business commission, i believe, has a group of various agencies as well as private interest groups working to develop guidelines for how to facilitate restaurant necessary san francisco. restaurant remodeling and rebuilding. i presume you are part of that group? >> yes. >> they have come up with draft

guidelines which includes 3 parts. i have copies. these are just the drafts which are a road map for how to get through the san francisco process in restaurant development. things you should know while you are starting that. 10 tips in getting started. i have a hand out which reflects some of the issues that are being addressed by this special group. this hand out reflects the building departments involvement to a large extent. not a lot of the other agency issues but on the first page i talk about all the different agencies involved. i think kevin had mentioned planning and changes of use and so on. planning and redevelopment agencies are clearly involved. as is the port and any other agency that has the over all jurisdiction of the area where you want to build.

some say what you are allowed to build. the building and fire department tell you how to build it. if you want to open a restaurant here in 1660 mission street. we have john's restaurant down stairs. say you want todd remodel it you have to go to planning and say, are we permit todd have a take out restaurant in this location or a fast food restaurant in this location? the planning department and redevelopment and port and others have very, very specific regulations it's almost block by block. have you to bring into the planning department your address so they can look it up on the zoning map to see what you are permitted to have. before you get further involvement in a restaurant the first thing you have to do is see if it's allowed in this location. in many cases you will need to get a conditional use or other authorization which takes months and expensive and can be a deal

killer right there. all these other agencies are involved the fire department are involved they are involved in assembly occupancies with an occupant load of 50 or more. the building department looks at construction reasonable doubted things the fire department looks at fire and life safety regarding exiting and sprinklers. health department is involved and permitting and inspection. the entertainment commission, this is a new change within the last 5 years or so where any restaurant wants to have live entertainment or a dj or anything defined as entertainment by the city -- is it in the -- i don't remember the add min code, i believe for the entertainment commission. have you to get a special permit.

and this is sometimes difficult to do because you might be in an area that's residential if you have a restaurant with live music you may find your plans are at odds with the neighborhood's desire for tranquillity. and in fact that's often the case in san francisco where we have conflicts with night time entertainment and the residents. public works, public works department regulates most restaurant permitting to the extent in almost every case you have to do street or sidewalk work you may wish to have tables or chairs on the sidewalks you have to get a permit for encroachment from street and mapping. almost every case public works requires a permitting process. i'm sure we will hear more about that in a minute. i wanted to give you a general list of the agencies this is not

exhaustive there are others the state agencies that regulate alcoholic beverages, abc. there are many others. i will turn that back to you. wanted to make a list of complicating factors. i get calls saying, how do i solve the problems. these are some problems. everything costs more than anyone imagines. is it 2 or 3? it's always more. san francisco has extremely high property, rental costs are high. local construction costs are higher in san francisco than in many other places in the bay area and around the country. that is because of in many ways because of the difficulty of building here. where do you get labor? your labor costs are higher every part of construction costs in san francisco are higher.

so -- if you get out of town contractors not familiar with san francisco issues it's a potential problem because they come in using walnut creek or san jose concepts there is no park here all day. where will i park? and it spirals quickly. you have to have a long-term plan to how you will survive until something happens. many people don't, they get frantic in fact, as time delays in construction and eats into what they thought was their buffer. there is a pretty high standard in many restaurants for service which is not met with a bottom line minimal number of employees. people tend to have or want to have greater levels of service. so -- they have more employees. i actually have a friend in the

restaurant business i visited a couple of weeks ago and he has a full time person who does payroll and employee benefit issues and does the bills. a full time person for not a really large restaurant. i was shocked that he say its's essential or he and the other managers have to spend free time doing paperwork. health issues, there is a huge health issue. i don't know if we want to get into it in depth. the requirements for san francisco to provide health benefits for small businesses where you have employment of 20 or more there is a certain -- weekly fee or monthly fee. >> it's per hour fee. >> okay. and there is another threshold if you are over 50 employees you have a higher level per hour fee; is that right? >> start necessary 50 in april it goes to a hundred.

a business with 20-100 has one rate 1.17 an hour 2459 business needs to spend on health care. a hundred or more employees it's 1.36 per hour and goes up with the cost of inflation in the bay area. >> another thing in the health area is to think about properly training employees to handle food properly from the moment it walks in the babying door until the guests consumed their meal and left. the scareiest thing in the restaurant industry is hepatitis. if you have an out break you have to put it on your front door in a large poster for 60 or 90 days and offer shots to our clients that have been there. it will put you out of business. there is food safety certification required bite

state of california. i couldn't emphasize enough that the proper handling of food is critical. if you know someone who got sick from eat nothing a restaurant you will probably never go there. that's the fastest way to go out of business. >> at the bottom of our page i have a note about experts. you or anyone, really. cannot be an expert in all fields. if people call me and say, what do i need to open a restaurant in san francisco, when they ask i know they really need help. they need expert help because they can't bottom trained architects or engineers or contractors or familiar with this massive building code. they need to hire an expert. don't try to become an expert.

hire people are experts who have the experience how to get through the permitting process and know the regulations and rules. only if you do a small remodeling if your house if you are not stay at what you are good at. cooking or dentistry. don't become an expert in construction and architect. i sigh that as a problem. people go beyond their levels of ability. >> the next page the permits and licenses required. building permites required for construction. building code says you need a permit for everything except gut sxers down spouts and wall paper. you need a permit for most other things. you need plan review permitting. when you come and pay a large fee for us to review your plans before you get your permits.

the street use permit. public works street mapping where the dumpster goes. issue permits for construction work taking place in the public rieft way. fire sprinkler permits get reviewed by fire departments. signs have a separate requirement under the planning and building code. although they are usually included with the building perm permit. if someone wants a restaurant design the sign acknowledges part of the over all permit otherwise it's separate. and lek signs have different permit requirements. additional licenses include those that the contractor needs to build including his